PlayStation Dreamscape - The Hidden Console
I must say, I absolutely adore PlayStation. I love all of the consoles, but especially the PlayStation 2, the first video game console my family owned, and I can't wait for the day when they finally launch the PlayStation 5. But though PlayStation is my passion, it's safe to say that everyone makes mistakes. And that's definitely the case in this story. While PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 are well-known video game consoles, and in some cases, fan favourites, there is one console that's been hidden for years. Sony, the company behind these brilliant consoles, doesn't want us to know about it, and I see their reasoning. The console in mind is known as the PlayStation Dreamscape. From what I've learned, it was meant to be launched on November 8, 2000, only months after the release of the PlayStation 2 on March 4 that year. However, the Dreamscape never made it to the public for obvious reasons, reasons I will tell you about if you continue reading. I know all this, of course, because I've had my own personal experience with the PlayStation Dreamscape, and I'll tell you all about it. November 8, 2013 I was super exited. After seven years of waiting after the release of the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 4 was right around the corner. I couldn't wait to buy it and see how great it would be. To build up even more excitement, I had been rapidly playing my PS3, sometimes almost all day. Today I played a lot of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. November 15, 2013 The day had finally arrived. The PlayStation 4 had launched, and I almost immediately rushed to the nearest store where it was in stock and bought it. I also bought Battlefield 4 for the PS4 and played that for a while, and it was quite fun. I was enjoying this new console. Sony had pleased me once more. November 17, 2013 It turned out that the only issue with the PlayStation 4 was the battery life of its controllers. The Dualshock 4 controllers were pretty cool and performed well, but they only had eight hours of battery life. The Dualshock 3 controllers for the PS3 had almost four times that battery length. Despite this flaw, it was undeniable that the PS4 was amazing. November 18, 2013 My friend Liam called me today. He told me that he knew how much I loved PlayStation, so he was planning to get a PlayStation 4 for my birthday, which was coming up on November 23, but heard I already bought one. I told him it was okay. Then, we started talking about some random stuff, before he mentioned something a bit strange. He said he was walking past a garage sale at a nearby house, and he checked it out and saw something that looked similar to a PlayStation 2, but not exactly the same, and he said it was labelled as the "PlayStation Dreamscape". I was confused, as I had never heard of a console with that name. Neither had Liam. I asked which house the garage sale was at, and he said it was on the street right next to ours and its number was 4114. We shrugged this off, and Liam asked if I could come over. I said yes, and I did come over later that day. He talked about how exited he was for the Xbox One to be released - he was more of an Xbox guy than a PlayStation guy, but he liked PlayStation too. Then, we played some games on his Xbox 360, and I went home. November 22, 2013 Today was the day when the Xbox One was released. Liam called me again and told me he bought one. I congratulated him, and we talked some more, not mentioning the strange console in the garage sale. November 23, 2013 It was my birthday today. I got many great presents from my parents and friends. Liam bought me a whole load of PlayStation 4 games, which I loved. We played games on my PS4 like Battlefield 4 and Grand Theft Auto V, which was one of the games Liam bought for me. Overall, we had a lot of fun. November 25, 2013 Today, I decided to check out that strange console in the garage sale Liam told me about. I went to the street next to ours and found house 4114, and the garage sale was still there. There was a note saying that the owner of the house wasn't available at the moment, and that we could buy whatever we wanted from the garage. Most of the items in the garage sale were normal, but I spotted some weird ones in there. It didn't take me long to spot the so-called PlayStation Dreamscape Liam had mentioned. It looked a lot like the PlayStation 2, but not quite the same. It shared the basic shape and form of a PS2, but was silver instead of black, was slightly smaller, and had two logos on the side instead of one. There was the PlayStation logo, of course, and then another one right next to it. The second was a metallic circle surrounding two letters, D and F, with Entertainment ''written underneath. This logo made no sense. If Sony had collaborated with another company, why hadn't I heard of it? Perhaps the company wasn't very popular, but if they had teamed up with Sony, they should've been at least somewhat known. However, I decided to ignore this. I would researh DF Entertainment when I got home. The console came with no controllers, but it said it was compatible with DualShock 2 controllers (the controllers for the PlayStation 2), which was good, because I had some of those. The console in its entirety sold for $100 CAD, which was a very good deal. Since I was a PlayStation lover and I was curious to see if this console was legitimate or not (it actually did look quite legitimate) I bought the console and headed home with it. When I got home with it, I put it in my basement and then called Sony PlayStation Support (1-800-345-7669). An employee picked up, and I asked him about the PlayStation Dreamscape. He said he had no idea what I was talking about, leading me to believe the console I bought was faked. Then, when I asked him about DF Entertainment, he said it was a young company that Sony worked with for a short while on something, what it was, he didn't have any idea. He also said it was disbanded shortly after, which was probably why the project they were working on with Sony was never released. I'd heard enough. I said goodbye to the employee and hung up the phone. This was very curious. I suspected, of course, that the unreleased project they worked on with Sony was this PlayStation Dreamscape console. But after a long day, I decided to go to sleep. '''December 10, 2013' I had waited a little while since I obtained the PlayStation Dreamscape, but I decided I would play it now. The console seemingly came with no games, so I wasn't sure what to do with it, but I would try it out anyway. I hooked it up to one of the TVs in the basement (there are three - one for the PS4, one for the PS3, and the one I hooked up this console to). It hooked up just like a PlayStation 2 would. Then, I acquired a few old DualShock 2 controllers and connected one to the console. And finally, of course, I turned it on. The startup began like a PS2's, with the Sony Computer Entertainment text with all the data-representing towers. Then, the DF Entertainment logo appeared, the same one next to the PlayStation logo on the console. Next, after that disappeared, there was an electric-blue version of the PS2 logo accompanied with text saying PlayStation Dreamscape. Then, text appeared, telling me to press the start button to start. When I did that, the PlayStation logo faded away, and a message popped up. The message read: Greetings, player. It is our pleasure to have you play on this console. The PlayStation Dreamscape is designed by Daniel Fletcher, founder and C.E.O of DF Entertainment, and we, Sony, have worked with them to create what you are playing now. Please, enjoy your time playing, and report any issues you have. Then, it told me to press X to continue, which I did after reading the message. It closed, and I reached the menu. It didn't look like the PlayStation 2's menu with the 3D game icons, but instead a lot more like the PS3's logo. I noticed that there was some sort of game as an app for the console itself. It was called PlayStation Ad Creator (PlayStation Dreamscape Starter Game). I decided to play this, for it looked interesting. The Sony logo and the DF Entertainment logo appeared side by side. This was when the first creepy thing happened. The logos started glitching out slightly, mostly the DF Entertainment one. Then, when this was happening, faint, glitchy text appeared on the screen one word at a time: You'll regret this. The glitching could, of course, be because of the console being old, but that wouldn't explain the faint text. Perhaps someone had toyed with it. I shrugged it off for the time being. Then, there was the game's menu. It seemed to be some sort of cartoon game. The background seemed to be a city with a bunch of advertisements on the buildings. Most were about made-up products, but some advertised the original PlayStation, the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation Dreamscape (meta as it was), and a bunch of PlayStation games. Before starting, I checked the game's description, which read: This game is simple. Sony is delighted at the success of their consoles, but wants you to make advertisements for PlayStation to help them even more. Do the best you can to intrigue the people who read the ads and make them love the consoles! Controls will be explained in the in-game tutorial. Good luck, and have fun! Then, underneath that, was more glitched-out text, this time reading Yes. Have fun indeed. I ignored that and started the game. It began with a cutscene of a person, presumably my character, driving to a Sony Headquarters. Then, as he entered, a man greeted him, telling him they needed him to make ads. Then, the gameplay began. I had immediately started designing an ad. A box asked if I wanted to make it about the original PlayStation, the PS2, the Dreamscape, or a game. I decided on the PS2, and started making the ad. When I was done, I clicked the finish button, and then an image appeared of my ad hung on a building. Then, I returned to the Sony Headquarters. Now, there were three counters in the top left corner of the screen. The first read: Ad Viewers: 4, which meant four people had already seen the ad. Then, there was Total Ad Viewers, which had 4. It was probably for all of the ads. Finally, there was Customers, which currently had 0. The first two counters went up by 1 every eight to thirteen seconds or so. While this happened, I explored the Sony Headquarters, looking at everything. After a few minutes, the Customers counter changed from 0 to 1, and a notification popped up saying that someone had bought the PlayStation 2 from seeing my ad. When I pressed start, the game paused, and five buttons appeared. Main Menu, Create New Ad, Shop, Save Game, ''and Options''. I decided to create another ad. Gameplay continued, and I made more and more ads. All of the counters began to go up a lot, and as this happened, I gained more points, and used those to buy more ad components in the shop. The screen glitched occasionally, but I shrugged this off as the game being old. Then, things started to get very creepy. About three hours into the game, while exploring the Sony Headquarters, I discovered a secret room. Inside, there was nothing but a singular, worn out poster. As I approached, I found that it contained a crudely drawn picture of the PlayStation Dreamscape, accompanied by equally crudely drawn text saying Come and play. A few seconds later, the screen started to slowly fade to static. Then, as it was completely static, more crudely drawn text said this message: Sony has been fooled. Our company is not here to entertain. Then, a message box appeared saying that an unexpected error had occurred and that the game required me to return to the last save. Luckily, the last save was only minutes before I discovered the poster. I clicked Okay, and was sent back. Almost instantly after I returned to the last save, I suddenly received a phone call. Usually, phone calls were from a customers requesting the consoles. But this time, it wasn't. As I picked this phone call up, the message was glitchy, but I could still make it out. The man on the other end said he was a police officer and had called because many of the people who were buying the PlayStation Dreamscape had died by electrocution. I was stunned. Suddenly, the phone glitched out completely and turned off. The whole game's screen starting going weird. I pressed start and attempted quitting to the main menu, but a message box popped up saying We're sorry, but that action can't be carried out at the moment. I tried again. Another message box, this time saying That won't work now. There is no escape. I tried a third time, and the button simply disappeared and did not return. I was getting very creeped out now. I didn't know of any other way to exit the game. I decided to try creating another ad, just to see what would happen if I did. This time, the ad creator would only let me choose the PlayStation Dreamscape, not the other two consoles. Then, when I selected the Dreamscape, all of the ad components were glitched out or textureless, except for two new ones. The crudely drawn picture of the Dreamscape and the crudely drawn message saying Come and play ''from the creepy poster in the secret room. I tried cancelling out of the ad creator, but another message box popped up, saying ''Oh no you don't. You have to lure in more of them. Scared as I was, I clicked finish, though I had put nothing on the ad. Another message box: Add those two components first, will you? I reluctantly did and clicked finish again. There was an image of the worn-out poster from the secret room hung on a building, like the ads would normally be, except now, the building was about as worn-down as the poster itself, and was covered in splatters of a hyper-realistic red substance that I assumed was blood. Then, the screen faded to static, and a crudely drawn message appeared on the screen, reading: You've done what you need to, or as you could say, you've fulfilled the game's objective. Now you are not needed. Farewell, player. Be gone like anyone else who uses this console. Then, the TV blacked out, and the PlayStation Dreamscape actually started to crackle and short-circuit. I stared at it in total horror. An electrical current erupted from the console and travelled across the cord of the DualShock 2 I was using. I quickly realized that it was going to travel through the controller and electrocute me. My instincts kicked in, and without thinking, I dropped the controller. It landed on the polished wood floor of the basement just as the current reached the end and stopped. The wood was scorched by the electricity, but luckily, wood is an insulator, not a conductor, and the floor put an end to the current. I breathed heavily. Then, I picked up the phone. I first called the police, then Sony. The employee who picked up this time was the same one I spoke to when I first obtained the PlayStation Dreamscape, and he was about as stunned as I was when the story came flooding out of my mouth. I was scared to death by what had happened. I was glad I was alright. January 28, 2014 It's been weeks since the occurrence with the PlayStation Dreamscape. We destroyed and got rid of the console shortly afterwards. The TV had to be repaired after it, along with the Dreamscape, short-circuited. From what I'd experienced on December 10, I learned what must have happened. Sony had worked with DF Entertainment on the PlayStation Dreamscape, but DF Entertainment had secretly made it dangerous. Sony, without knowing it, would have lured people into death by electrocution. But, luckily for everyone, Sony had discovered this and had shut down the project and got DF Entertainment disbanded. Thus, the Dreamscape was never released, but somehow, the owner of the house with the garage sale, 4114, acquired one. And do you know what I discovered today? I discovered that if you put the numbers 4, 1, and 14, in that order, into a Letter-Number Decoder, it becomes the name "Dan". Dan, a short form for Daniel, like Daniel Fletcher, the founder and C.E.O of DF Entertainment, who designed the deadly PlayStation Dreamscape. This leads me to believe there was a connection between the owner of the house and Daniel Fletcher. Surely, the PlayStation Dreamscape I got couldn't have been the only one out there. There are probably more, spread out across the world, just waiting for innocent gamers to buy them, play them, and meet their death. I was lucky. I had dropped the DualShock 2, preventing the electrical current from entering my body. And for that, I am forever grateful to myself. But others might not be so lucky. Present Day Well, that's the story of my encounter with the secret, deadly PlayStation Dreamscape. I still love PlayStation, and play on my PS4 almost daily, but I will never forget that occurrence. It's just one of those memories the brain won't let fade. This story is not made to entertain you. It is made to inform and warn you. Share this story with whoever you can - don't be secretive about it. I made it to spread awareness. And if you find a PlayStation Dreamscape yourself, as incredibly low as that chance is, do not buy it, and definitely do not play it. If you do buy it, you must destroy it instantly. Do you understand? I'm sure you do. Stay aware, reader, and most importantly, stay safe. Category:Video Games Category:Vidya games